Specializing in Roman Catholic Eclectic

A Rosary Meditation … The First Sorrowful Mystery, the Agony in the Garden. “And going forward a little, He fell on the ground, and began to pray.” Mark 14:35. The greatest prayer we ever pray is the Mass, and the Mass is communal. We pray it together, as a group, as a family. “The family that prays together, stays together.” This, the family or communal aspect of prayer, is very important and we find it stressed in various ways throughout the Bible, throughout our history. But private prayer is just as important. There are things we’ll say to God out loud in private that we would never say in public with others listening. Private prayer is an outpouring of those things otherwise locked away in the human heart, things that need to be let out, things that heal when confronted by the light of day. 2 Peter 1:19. There is much beauty and comfort in private, personal prayer. Things can be done in private prayer, even while in an agony, perhaps because of the agony, that would never be accomplished otherwise. Its important. And being creatures of habit the surroundings can also be important. Jesus many times prayed in nature. In the garden, in the wilderness, while walking the back roads of Galilee. He no doubt was in tune with the wonderful nature that He had created. It’s a fact that we are, in part, physical beings. This means we need the physical, we need the material world around us in order to function properly and fully. In private prayer its important to have a place where we can prostrate ourselves, at least in heart, when we pray. Jesus did, and if He did, and He IS our example in ALL things, then we should too. A private place, our own spiritual “garden”, a place set aside for our private prayer. The corner of a room, the statue on top of our dresser as we set on the edge of the bed, our favorite chair, whatever works for us. The garden, nature, worked for Jesus. Ask Him what will be best for you, what physical accompaniment will best work for you as an individual. When you find it stick to it. As small a thing as this may seem remember that every thing that works adds to the desired end result. Even in Heaven He has prepared a “place” for us. Surely a prayer place here and now can be a prelude to that Heavenly abode if we will but place ourselves in His presence. After all, being in His presence is what heaven, and prayer, is all about.

Today … St. Pega was sister to St. Guthlac. She lived a retired life not far from her brother’s hermitage at Croyland, just across the border of what is now Northamptonshire, on the western edge of the great Peterborough Fen. The place is now called Peakirk, i.e. Pega’s church. She attended her brother’s funeral, making the journey by water down the Welland, and is said to have cured a blind man from Wisbech at this time. She is said to have then gone on pilgrimage to Rome, where she died about the year 719. Ordericus Vitalis said her relics were honored, with attendant miracles, and kept in a church which bore her name at Rome, but we don’t know which church this was now. A hermitage at Croyland, the Welland, Rome, various churches. Lots of places. Do you think that, at these various places, she prayed? With others? Alone? Certainly, both. And while the prayers were primary the places were important too. We still remember the places because she was there. We need to think about and remember our own places as well. That favorite chair, the edge of the bed, our own garden. These are physical links to spiritual realities. Lets ask St. Pega to pray for us that we develop a right appreciation for our prayer places and what they can mean, what they can represent, to us.

Prayer … Prayer is talking with God. The word “with” is important. It means that not only do we talk but that we listen as well.